The Store-Bought Vodka Sauce Your Pasta Deserves Every Time

Vodka sauce is a longstanding favorite that spikes a simple tomato sauce with cream, using vodka to enhance its aromas and emulsify the tomato and cream into a smooth, silky consistency. As with most hit pasta sauces, many manufacturers offer bottled vodka sauce to take the leg work out of making a fully homemade dinner. We taste tested 16 store-bought vodka sauces to find the best option, and Botticelli organic creamy vodka sauce is what your pasta deserves every time.

We ranked vodka sauces on flavor, texture, quality of ingredients, nutritional factors, price, and availability. Botticelli checked all the boxes, starting with high-quality, organic, and natural ingredients that you would find in a from-scratch version. The organic Italian tomatoes were chunky, juicy, and fresh, with just the right balance of savory aromatics and Italian herbs, earthy olive oil, and cream. The vodka certainly brought out the heavenly aromas of the sauce as we heated it up on the stove. In addition to cream, this vodka sauce also contains Parmigiano Reggiano and pecorino Romano with the coveted DOP seal to bring nuttiness, saltiness, and even more richness to the palate. As for consistency, Botticelli is quite literally the cream of the crop, with a smooth viscosity that clung beautifully to pasta and luscious chunks of tomatoes that burst with umami flavor. Plus, at $6.99 a jar, this organic, high-quality bottle was more affordable than many lower ranking competitors.

Reviews on Instagram and Amazon were very complimentary of the flavor, texture, and authenticity of Botticelli's creamy vodka sauce. One reviewer called it their "new favorite vodka sauce" because it had a "great flavor and texture for a ready-made sauce." Other reviews said where they normally needed to add extra flavors to store-bought sauce, Botticelli was perfect as is.

Vodka sauce's creamy, rich consistency is most classically served over penne, a type of pasta with both grooves and a tubular shape to trap as much of the sauce as possible. But, we think it would taste delicious over cavatappi, fusilli, and rigatoni as we demonstrate in this recipe for rigatoni alla vodka. If you're not in the mood for pasta, use vodka sauce instead of standard pizza sauce to spread over pizza dough to top with fresh basil, dollops of ricotta, and Parmesan cheese. For that matter, you can make an Italian flag trio pizza by lining a square pie with vodka sauce, Alfredo sauce, and store-bought pesto sauce. Vodka sauce would make a delicious condiment to spread over a meatball sandwich. You could also serve it as a dipping sauce for a classic grilled cheese sandwich, or even pour the sauce over chicken or veal Milanese or eggplant Parmesan.